JIRA Waterfall Model

Introduction

JIRA is an Agile project management tool where the team can track the working of a project and can seamlessly develop the project with confidence. This tool was developed by Atlassian in the year 2002 and subsequently, changes are done to make the tool more handy.

What is a Waterfall Model?

The waterfall model typically is the first type of model adopted by companies in their project management. This model has 6 stages. Let’s discuss each of the stages one by one.

1. Requirements: Here the client comes to the company with specific specifications for the product that he/ she wants to be developed by the team. In this phase, the company understands the demand of the client and tries to make a roadmap to achieve the requirement.
2. Design: In this phase, after understanding the requirement the company tries to make a roadmap to achieve the target. Companies present some low-level or high-level designs and present them to the client. So, that client can give the final approval to the team to start working on the project.
3. Development: In this phase, as per the requirement the front-end or the back end of the project is started. Each task based on the requirement is assigned to each of the team players, and they execute the work as per the requirement.
4. Testing: Once the development team work is over the system is given to the testers, who check the worst cases where the project is working fine or not, and if in any of the cases they find that the project is not working as per the requirement they, raise the bug and the developer team will again check the code.
5. Deployment: Once the testing team checks all the edge cases of the project and is satisfied that the project is working fine in all terms. The project is shown to the client, and it is opened to the public.
6. Maintenance: Since with time some changes may be required or may be after some time. New bugs may be found to make the project steady for use. Maintenance is done by the company, to gain the client’s trust and also build the company’s reputation.

Waterfall Model Process

A classical Waterfall Model is famous when it is in the early stage. But with time modification is done and people started adopting Agile Methodology. Although this waterfall model is not widely used, knowing about this can further help in managing previous projects that were built earlier with this model.

Example of Waterfall Model:

Waterfall Example

A client wants to make a weather forecasting application. He approaches the company team, with all the ideas he wants to implement. 1 month passed in all meetings and discussions of the client’s vision for the application. With all the requirements the team starts designing the architecture. 2–3 months passed in designing the blueprint of the application. Then actual development started which took nearly 10 months, to develop and also to meet the documented requirements. After that testing took 2 months and once the testing is done. The product is ready to launch.

In this, the client does not have interference while developing the application. This process may result in extended deadlines and less flexibility to make changes after the requirement phase.

Advantages of the Waterfall Model:

1. Easy to implement: This model uses a linear and sequential approach. Each phase has it clear objective and path to be followed. This makes it easier for both developers and stakeholders to manage and plan the project.

2. Delivery and process: Each phase has a clear roadmap and a well-defined delivery. This helps in making good quality control over the project at each process. Stakeholders can easily get the idea of progress and can review whether the project is undergoing with their requirements.

3. Clear Phases: There is no overlapping of phases resulting in sequential execution of the model. This is best when the requirements are not changing with time and makes the scope of a controlled and predictable development process.

Disadvantages of the Waterfall Model:

1. Time taking: This model is linear and sequential, so each phase must be completed before the new phase begins. If any one of the phases gets delayed the other phase will automatically be delayed. In this fast-changing industry, this becomes a major drawback.

2. Unexpected Results: Since everything is decided at the beginning only. Any new issue that wasn’t handled earlier can be challenging to be addressed. This rigidity led to unexpected results and the results will be costly at a later stage of modification.

3. Not suitable for the requirements’ environment: Being highly inflexible while accommodating the changes. If the customer needs to change something then it may require to start the entire project from the beginning. Making this model highly unsuitable for changing requirements.

Project using Jira Waterfall Model:

JIRA is used for making an Agile project management tool it is not recommended for making a Waterfall model project. There is no built-in template provided by JIRA for the waterfall model. If you are a beginner no one is asking you to build a project with the Waterfall model using JIRA.